Federico García Lorca’s Theatrical Evolution
Dramatic creation was a constant interest for Lorca. We can divide the evolution of his theater into three phases:
- Early works (first dramatic experiences in the 1920s)
- Avant-garde experiences (early 1930s)
- The height of his career (his last years, which remain the copyright of his major works)
Lorca’s Early Plays
Lorca began his dramatic career with the play The Butterfly’s Evil Spell, which was a juvenile trial released in 1920. It was a failure. It is a work of symbolist roots in which we already see the core conflict of Lorca’s drama: frustration and impossible love. Later, after several short pieces inspired by puppets, he got his first hit, Mariana Pineda, which was a tragic love drama in verse, in the style of Marquina’s theater.
Later, Lorca created a renewed, short work, The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife, which is about a young shoemaker married to an older man. It represents the struggle between reality and fantasy that exists in the heart of every creature. We return to that tragic love in his next work, *Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden*. To complete this stage is the brief work of Retabillo of Don Cristóbal, another case of unequal love.
Avant-Garde Experience
After Gypsy Ballads and during his stay in New York, Lorca underwent a crisis of life and aesthetics, addressing the vital issue of homosexuality. His aesthetic concerns led him to rethink the foundations of his creation, seek a new language, and enter the field of Surrealism. As a result of the encounter between the two crises, we have Poet in New York and other “impossible” comedies in which his imagination is unleashed.
The first play is The Public, a kind of morality play without God, whose characters embody Lorca’s secrets and obsessions. It is an accusation against society that condemns homosexuals. The second, When Five Years Pass, presents a match between two young lovers, animated by an impossible fatherhood. The play develops the protagonist’s dreams and illustrates intimate frustration.
The Height of Lorca’s Career
After these “impossible” comedies, Lorca shifted towards a more proper form. These are the years of “La Barraca”, a theatrical company formed by students and fans, whose main mission was to present famous ancient Spanish works, as well as interesting foreign works. This stage corresponds to works such as Blood Wedding, Yerma, Doña Rosita the Spinster, The House of Bernarda Alba, and the draft of a comedy’s first act without a title.
In almost all these works, the woman has an important position; Lorca showed the importance he gave to the status of women in society. Blood Wedding and Yerma are two tragedies where Lorca mixed classic style prose and verse. We see symbolic and allegorical elements used. Blood Wedding is based on a real event about a bride who runs off with her lover on her wedding day. We return to purely Lorca themes such as love, violence, and death. Yerma is a drama about a woman condemned to infertility, and it also includes other Lorca themes such as the oppression of women.
Doña Rosita the Spinster is a drama about waiting for a useless love. Lorca addresses the situation of women in the urban bourgeoisie. The House of Bernarda Alba is the culmination of his theater. We find the best of his earlier works. He only uses prose with the intention of composing a work devoid of rhetorical devices, although we find many symbolic elements that lead us back to the most characteristic themes of Lorca’s theater: freedom from authority, erotic and natural instincts facing social norms, and so on. The style and language of The House of Bernarda Alba, despite appearing simple, was wisely developed.